This innovative volume is the first systematic study of civil society elites in Southeast Asia (and indeed anywhere in the world). Spanning two previously separate areas of research – civil society and elites – it sheds new light on power inequalities within and beyond civil society, identifies different types of elite formation and elite interaction within and beyond civil society, and traces interactions and integration with elite groups from party politics, the state, and the business sector. This tightly edited volume, produced by a research team ranging from senior scholars to promising younger academics, analyses how such processes are influenced by reliance on foreign funding and explores how they play out in two settings – where the political space for civil society is generally shrinking (Cambodia) and where it is relatively expanding (Indonesia). However, the volume offers more than a rethinking of civil society in Cambodia and Indonesia; it looks beyond. It thus challenges a view of civil society entities as relatively isolated from the state and from political and economic society, revealing power relations that link them. Suggesting a new direction for civil society research, the book will be of great interest to the many researchers working on civil society, elites and contemporary Southeast Asian politics as well as those engaged in other areas of society in Cambodia and Indonesia. Policymakers, donors and not least civil society activists themselves will find the volume highly relevant to their work.

Table of contents: 

1. Introduction: Studying Civil Society Elite Formation and Interaction - Astrid Norén-Nilsson, Amalinda Savirani & Anders Uhlin 

Part 1. Setting the Scene: Theory, Methods and Context

2. Field Theory and Methods for the Analysis of Civil Society Elites - Anders Uhlin, Astrid Norén-Nilsson & Amalinda Savirani 

3. Civil Society in Cambodia - Unattributed 

4. Civil Society in Indonesia - Willy Purna Samadhi & Norin Abhiseka 

Part 2: Elite Formation in Civil Society

5. Youth Activism and Elite Reproduction in Cambodia and Indonesia - Astrid Norén-Nilsson & Amalinda Savirani 

6. Leadership and Power in Cambodian Forest Conservation Networks - Kimhean Hok & Astrid Norén-Nilsson 

7. Development Aid and the (Re)production of Civil Society Elites: Human Rights and Anti-Corruption CSOs in Indonesia - Purwo Santoso and & Indah Surya Wardhani 

Part 3: Elite Interaction and Integration

8. Elite Interaction in Indonesia at the Local Level: A Case Study of Makassar and Kupang - Haryanto, Desi Rahmawati & Cornelis Lay 

9. Agricultural Civil Society Elites in Cambodia: Interactions with Economic and State Elites - Unattributed

10. Boundary Crossers: Moving between Civil Society, State, Political and Economic Fields in Cambodia and Indonesia - Haryanto, Ignasius Jaques Juru & Astrid Norén-Nilsson

Part 4: Conclusion

11. Conclusion: Elites in and beyond Civil Society Fields - Astrid Norén-Nilsson, Amalinda Savirani & Anders Uhlin

The book is available for open access on the NIAS press website